Saturday, December 31, 2016

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
(Increasingly, I am sampling books, reading 10%, 20% even 40 or 50% before deciding to move on. The books below are only the ones I've read completely. That also explains what looks like generous grading -- more and more, if I sense a book is not going to be among my favorites, I stop reading. Too many books; too little time!)

(Not TV movies, of course, but movies and TV -- and TV movies if it comes to that. Mostly I only list TV shows when I've tackled an entire season at once or reappraising an entire series after it's over This doesn't really capture my ongoing watching of current TV.)

Sunday, March 13, 2016

The 41st Annual IRA FILM AWARD WINNERS -- 2015The IRAs are a mysterious but august film society that has voted on the best films of the year since 1976. Officially known as the New York Independent Film Critics Awards but lovingly nicknamed the IRAs, it is more international and indie focused than the Oscars, more mercurial than the LA Film Critics, more loyal to their favorites than the Golden Globes, the IRAs are proud to announce their picks for the best movies released in 2015.The IRAs began when passionate film students and friends complained about the parade of annual awards shows, declaring, "We could do better!" What followed was an all-night, knock-down, drag-out fight to establish the very first winners of the IRAs. (One of the members is named Ira, but how his name became the name of the award is a story lost in the mist of time.) The IRAs has been profiled in The New Yorker so it is officially a New York institution, though no one has ever heard of it. Over the years, its rotating cast of voting members have included Oscar-winning writers, major directors, top studio execs, best-selling and critically acclaimed authors of books on movies, critics, screenwriters, budding playwrights, plain old film buffs and so on. This year the IRAs have added Best Nonfiction Film to its list of awards. Every year, the IRAs shine a light on some of the best films of the year. The secret reason the IRAs flourish is that its members are passionate film lovers. Many have careers involving the arts but it's not always easy to stay in the swim of things and keep on top of the flood of new releases every year, especially when the movies favored by IRA members are not always playing at your local multiplex for weeks at a time. The movies they appreciate tend to be harder to catch, playing in theaters only briefly before popping up (hopefully) on some streaming service or DVD if you miss it. Quite simply, the IRAs force them to stay committed to seeing new movies with the same fervor they felt in their college days when going to see a film was the only purpose in life, before jobs and family made claims on their time. So if you want to stay on top of great cinema every year or explore its history, there's no better place to start than the award winners of the IRAs. True, the IRAs have no more claim to pronounce the best films of the year than anyone else. But they've been doing it for decades so, hey, it's tradition! And the IRA goes to....BEST PICTURE1. Tangerine -- 22 pts. (out of a possible 45 pts.)
2. Mommy -- 13 pts.
3. (tie) Mad Max: Fury Road -- 12 pts.
(tie) The Tribe 12 pts.
5. Clouds Of Sils Maria 8 pts.

NOTE: When there's a tie, the number of films tied fill up a corresponding number of slots. Here, two films tied for #3, so that fills up both #3 and #4. Thus the next film listed is ranked at #5. This year nine ballots were submitted with a top score for each film of 5 pts, so the maximum any one film could achieve was 45 pts.

The IRAs are voted on from Best Costumes up to Best Picture. So this award comes towards the end of the evening. The victory of Tangerine is no surprise, really: it won or tied for six of the Top 12 awards. (There are also "negative" awards.) Clearly it's support was deep and strong. Still, when The Tribe won the penultimate prize of Best Director by a substantial margin, it was reasonable to expect it would win Best Picture. The IRA members are no vehement auteurists, but they certainly recognize directors as usually the driving force of most films. Much of the time, Best Picture and Best Director go hand in hand. That gets muddier when the race is tight, as you can see in years past. What makes this year rather unusual is that Tangerine enjoyed a substantial victory for Best Picture and The Tribe enjoyed a substantial victory for Best Director. It just proves that IRA voting is informed and smart but ultimately driven by passion and admiration, not by any hidebound rules or academic theory. The result? Five films enjoyed five of the top six awards for the night: The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, The End Of The Tour, Mommy, Tangerine and The Tribe.

NOTE: Coming out of nowhere, The Tribe wins Best Director. However, while it wasn't a threat to win in earlier categories, The Tribe did garner mentions in three earlier rounds of voting. Plus, the film's best shot at an acting award probably came in supporting actress, one of the most crowded awards in memory, with a wealth of good performances to choose from. The male characters in the film are unnamed and tend to blur together. It's not a criticism of the film -- that's how it was crafted. But that does make it harder to single people out. But this Ukrainian film is one of the boldest movies in memory. It's set in a school for the deaf and the entire film is performed in Ukrainian Sign Language, with no dialogue, no subtitles and no voice-over or even any explanatory text providing context for the film. And yet, anyone can follow the complex storyline and shifting loyalties of the characters with relative ease. It's remarkably absorbing and feels genuinely fresh and new. That doesn't happen every day and this award is a statement from the IRAs that we'll be hearing from this director again.

NOTE: Jason Segel's turn as David Foster Wallace inspired passionate support from voters. However, Jesse Eisenberg's turn as the reporter in that film received "Mechanical Actor" points in the final negative awards of the night, which helps explain why The End Of The Tour could win Best Actor and Best Screenplay but not really be a player in many other categories. Ditto Paul Dano and John Cusack for Love And Mercy. (By the way, I'm aware it's an ampersand in the official title of Love And Mercy, but blogger has a glitch and won't display an ampersand properly. Someone call Google! Ironically, the song itself IS styled "Love And Mercy," so there.)

NOTE: Here's the big victory for Mommy, a film by previous IRA winner Xavier Dolan. You can see his new movie was a player in numerous categories throughout the night, from the first award voted on (Best Costumes) right up to the top award (Best Picture). Still, despite our passionate appreciation for Dolan and his work, most voters weren't able to catch Tom At The Farm, a 2013 film of his that finally had a blink-and-you-miss-it commercial run in New York City. At least IRA members have long memories: Mommy came out in January of 2015 but that didn't stop us from honoring it at our ceremony 14 months later.

NOTE: This was the only win for The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, one of the best films of the year (at least according to me). It was admired by those who saw it but not enough voters did. And here you can see that getting Oscar attention is no barrier to IRA attention, with Spotlight, The Big Short and Brooklyn all getting some support for various elements.

NOTE: If a majority of the voters participating in the IRAs each year (some members vote in absentia via ballot) all nominate the same person or film in a category, that nominee is the winner by acclamation. They garnered a majority of support on the first ballot. We then go through our ballots to see the other honorees, but the winner is foreordained. As with every category, once a winner is announced, there is a vote on whether to rescind. Perhaps a core group liked one performance -- enough to score the most points -- but a majority hated it. Or perhaps a majority want to see the runner-up win instead. In cases of a first round winner by acclamation, since a majority of the people already picked it, a vote to rescind has never prevailed.

NOTE: Recent years have seen a flurry of new categories and renaming of old ones. This year, the IRAs have included the category of "Best Nonfiction Film." Documentaries and other nonfiction works have triumphed at the IRAs in years past, notably the PBS civil rights masterpiece Eyes On The Prize and the art film Decasia (which married decaying scraps of old movies to a new score by Michael Gordon to haunting effect). However, those are the ONLY two nonfiction films to triumph and these movies have rarely even made a dent in the Top Five Best Picture race. After much debate and worry that creating this category meant a nonfiction film would never garner the top prize again, it has been added. Hopefully, this will encourage more watching of nonfiction films by members and increase its chances of being honored in all eligible areas, like editing and director and score and so on. We shall see.

NOTE: In a year filled with impressive cinematography, one could hardly go wrong in naming a well-shot movie. Four films tied for fourth place and all of them deserved to be singled out, along with others that didn't make the cut. Technology is such that everything from the "shot on an iPhone" Tangerine" to the "spare no expense" cutting edge work on The Revenant can look great, serve the story and make a film. Still, the IRA voters are not ones to embrace empty craft: all the films listed had their adherents, though arguably The Hateful Eight is the exception that proved the rule. No one touted it as one of the best films of the year, but it was still appreciated for both some of the acting and the old fashioned virtues of shooting on film, not to mention the almost perverse stunt of choosing an extreme aspect ratio and yet setting most of the film inside a one room lodge.

NOTE: Here it was clear that Mad Max: Fury Road had a lot of admirers, much as it swept the technical categories at the Academy Awards. And just like the Oscars, the technical awards are the only ones that Mad Max: Fury Road would win. Since we display our ballots, you can see how close Mad Max: Fury Road did, garnering a Top Five placement in Best Picture and Director. When some mocked voting for Mad Max: Fury Road by dismissing it as an Oscar winner, others asked what was so wrong with that? Must the IRAs invariably avoid movies that win Oscars? Naturally, if the IRAs merely repeated the same movies that garnered attention from the New York and LA critics, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, or even the Spirit Awards and other bodies, it wouldn't have much reason for being. Happily, the IRAs have a strong independent and international bias that means there is often very little overlap in the major awards. But there's even little overlap in the more indie-leaning awards, perhaps due to the idiosyncratic nature of IRA voters, their willingness to search out truly obscure movies (usually all the movies appearing on Best Of The Year list have been vetted by at least some IRA voters) or who knows, a wealth of good movies in a world where more than 1000 films are released in New York City each year.

NOTE: It's not official yet, but there's a desire to official rename Best Music or Best Score to the more appropriate category of "Best Use Of Music." Did Brian Wilson write a score for the movie Love And Mercy? No. But his music from Pet Sounds is ingeniously used in the film to illuminate the creative process, complete with Paul Dano recording new vocals and showing songs in various stages of completion. Platoon made a brilliant use of pre-existing music, as did 2001: A Space Odyssey.Love And Mercy does something different and bolder. Yet none of it is as easy as you might think. Just slapping some Beethoven on your images isn't going to win you an IRA or make your movie good. Rather than worry about what's new and what's pre-existing and which percentage of which to credit a film for, we have simply been appreciating the movies that make the best use of music, whatever their source.

NOTE: Documentaries often score highly in the editing category because they typically include a wealth of footage and the movie is "discovered" in the editing. This year Tangerine triumphed, arguably because its non-professional cast and loose nature meant this too was a feature film more than most that found its shape in the editing.

NOTE: Sure, as some noted Tsou was essentially raiding the wardrobes of the actors in the movie. But she's the one who chose which outfits to wear so it's still valid. Whether you craft a costume from scratch, alter a pre-existing one or piece together vintage clothes, you're making artistic choices every step of the way.

SOMINEX (The movie that put you to sleep)

1. The Assassin -- 20 pts.

2. The Hateful Eight -- 18 pts.

3. Magic Mike XXL -- 9 pts.

4. Black Mass -- 7 pts.

5. Jurassic World -- 6 pts.

NOTE: Arguably the funniest story of the night revolved around a screening of The Assassin. That led to a brief torrent of similar tales about watching a movie with the talent present -- if you know the director/star/producers are there and the movie is bad, it can be excruciating. If you don't know they're there, it can be embarrassing.

DRAMAMINE (The film that made you sick)

1 1. Chi-Raq -- 15 pts.

2. Stonewall -- 13 pts.

3. The Martian -- 12 pts.

4. The Danish Girl -- 10 pts.

5. Where To Invade Next -- 8 pts.

NOTE: No one is harder on liberals than liberals. So four of the five films mentioned here are "progressive" by any standard yet that won't protect them from brickbats for the worse failing of making bad art.

NOTE: The Mechanical awards are for actors relying on familiar tricks we've seen them personally use time and again or those tackling a role in a cliched manner. It's a moment for poisonous comments, getting revenge on movies and talent we once admired that have let us down or never fooled us in the first place but keep making moves we have to see. This year, the IRAs honored the transgender women of Tangerine but perhaps undermined that timely nod by cheekily naming Eddie Redmayne Mechanical Actress for his performance in The Danish Girl. Redmayne is of course authentically male (as they say) and portrays a character who begins as outwardly male but comes to realize and claim her authentic self as Lily, becoming one of the first people in the world to undergo surgery as part of her transition to claiming her identity as a woman. (Whew, had to be careful there!) Some strongly objected (I mean you, Andy), feeling this was disrespectful to women and transgender actors and people. While somewhat of a joke, this award also drove home the belief that in fact Redmayne's performance and the "tragic" film The Danish Girl was in fact inauthentic and thus this belief was driven home by giving him the award in the "wrong" category. The fact that Tangerine triumphed in numerous categories, including honors for its two main talents, will hopefully balance out any outrage over this choice.

MECHANICAL ACTOR

1. John Cusack for Chi-Raq and Love And Mercy -- 19 pts.

2. Matt Damon for The Martian -- 10 pts.

3. Jeff Daniels for The Martian -- 7 pts.

4. (tie) Jesse Eisenberg for The End Of The Tour -- 5 pts.

(tie) Tom Hardy for The Revenant -- 5 pts.
(tie) Chris Hemsworth for Blackhat and In The Heart Of The Sea -- 5 pts.

(tie) Ryan Reynolds for Woman In Gold -- 5 pts.(tie) Tom Sturridge for Far From The Madding Crowd -- 5 pts.NOTE: So you can spot a groundswell of dislike for The Martian in the negative awards. Unlike The Revenant, the Ridley Scott film had no champions. Similarly, a few really liked John Cusack in the generally admired Beach Boys movie Love And Mercy. But a strong contingent -- indeed most of the voters -- felt he was the central flaw in that movie. Everyone, however, agreed his turn in Spike Lee's Chi-Raq was surreally strange. Unfortunately, since a majority of voters included both performances in their vote, the minority who would have preferred just to single out his work in Chi-Raq had to either ignore Cusack entirely or give points to an award that would reflect the will of the voters and mention both movies.

PAST IRA WINNERSTHE COMPLETE IRA MOVIE AWARD WINNERS

1975IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: Barry LyndonBest Director: Claude Chabrol for La Rupture and Just Before NightfallBest Actor: Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s NestBest Actress: Ellen Burstyn in Alice Doesn’t Live Here AnymoreBest Supporting Actor: François Perrier in Just Before NightfallBest Supporting Actress: Blythe Danner in Hearts Of The WestBest Screenplay: Tom Stoppard and Thomas Wiseman for The Romantic EnglishwomanBest Cinematography: John Alcott for Barry Lyndon

1976 IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: (tie) Lipstick and The Marquise Of OBest Director: Eric Rohmer for The Marquise Of OBest Actor: Sean Connery in Robin And MarianBest Actress: Sissy Spacek in CarrieBest Supporting Actor: Jason Robards in All The President’s MenBest Supporting Actress: Anne Bancroft in LipstickBest Screenplay: Alain Tanner and John Berger for Jonah Who Will Be 25 In The Year 2000Best Cinematography: Nestor Almendros for The Marquise Of O

1984IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: (tie) L’Argent and Once Upon A Time In AmericaBest Director: Sergio Leone for Once Upon A Time In AmericaBest Actor: Clint Eastwood in TightropeBest Actress: Helen Mirren in CalBest Supporting Actor: Jean-Luc Godard in First Name: CarmenBest Supporting Actress: Christine Lahti in Swing ShiftBest Screenplay: Franco Arcalli, Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Franco Ferrini, Sergio Leone, Enrico Medioli for Once Upon A Time In AmericaBest Cinematography: Robby Müller for Paris Texas and Repo ManBest Music: Ennio Morricone for Once Upon A Time In AmericaBest Production Design: James Singelis for Once Upon A Time In AmericaBest Costume Design: Mic Cheminal for Entre Nous

1993IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: Six Degrees Of SeparationBest Director: Nancy Savoca for Household SaintsBest Actor: Dennis Quaid in Flesh And BoneBest Actress: Stockard Channing in Six Degrees Of SeparationBest Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio in A Boy’s Life and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?Best Supporting Actress: Regina Tourney in Like Water For ChocolateBest Screenplay: Mike Leigh for NakedBest Cinematography: Michael Balhaus for The Age Of InnocenceBest Music: Elmer Bernstein for The Age Of Innocence and The Cemetery ClubBest Production Design: Dante Ferretti for The Age Of InnocenceBest Costume Design: Gabriella Pescucci for The Age Of InnocenceSominex Award: Heaven And EarthDramamine Award: Falling DownMechanical Actor: Richard Gere in SommersbyMechanical Actress: Madonna in Body Of Evidence

1999IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: Fight ClubBest Director: (tie) David Fincher for Fight Club and Spike Jonze for Being John MalkovichBest Actor: Terence Stamp in The LimeyBest Actress: (tie) Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut and Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t CryBest Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia and The Talented Mr. RipleyBest Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener in Being John MalkovichBest Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for ElectionBest Cinematography: Robert Richardson for Bringing Out The Dead and Snow Falling On CedarsBest Music: Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman for South Park: Bigger, Longer & UncutBest Production Design: Owen Paterson for The MatrixBest Costume Design: Michael Kaplan for Fight ClubSominex Award: The World Is Not EnoughDramamine Award: The Green MileMechanical Actor: Kevin Spacey in American BeautyMechanical Actress: Annette Bening in American Beauty

2000IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: L’ HumaniteBest Director: (tie) Terence Davies for The House Of Mirth and Jim Jarmusch for Ghost Dog: Way Of The SamuraiBest Actor: Forrest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: Way Of The SamuraiBest Actress: (tie) Severine Caneele in L’ Humanite and Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonBest Supporting Actor: Jack Black in High Fidelity and Jesus’s SonBest Supporting Actress: Lupe Ontiveros in Chuck And BuckBest Screenplay: Kenneth Lonnergan for You Can Count On MeBest Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin for The House Of MirthBest Music: RZA for Ghost Dog: Way Of The SamuraiBest Production Design: Gideon Ponte for American Psycho and HamletBest Costume Design: Monica Howe for The House Of MirthSominex Award: Mission Impossible 2Dramamine Award: The Replacements (aka The Scabs)Mechanical Actor: Ian Holm in Joe Gould’s SecretMechanical Actress: Charlize Theron in Reindeer Games

2003IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: DecasiaBest Director: Bill Morrison for DecasiaBest Actor: Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The CaribbeanBest Actress: Hope Davis in American Splendor and The Secret Lives Of DentistsBest Supporting Actor: Max Pirkis in Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The WorldBest Supporting Actress: Ludivine Sagnier in Swimming PoolBest Screenplay: Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pulcini for American SplendorBest Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky for SpiderBest Music: Michael Gordon for DecasiaBest Production Design: Andrew Laws for Down With LoveBest Costume Design: Daniel Orlandi for Down With LoveSominex Award:Dramamine Award: In My SkinMechanical Actor: Anthony Hopkins in The Human StainMechanical Actress: Nicole Kidman in The Human Stain

2004IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: KinseyBest Director: Bill Condon for KinseyBest Actor: Ethan Hawke in Before SunsetBest Actress: Laura Linney in Kinsey and P.S.Best Supporting Actor: Peter Sarsgaard in KinseyBest Supporting Actress: Kirsten Dunst in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless MindBest Screenplay: Bill Condon for KinseyBest Cinematography: Christopher Doyle for Hero, Last Life In The Universe and Days Of Being WildBest Music: Alberto Iglesias for Bad EducationBest Production Design: Dante Ferretti for The AviatorBest Costume Design: Emi Wada for Hero and House Of The Flying DaggersSominex Award: The VillageDramamine Award: The Passion Of The ChristMechanical Actor: Cate Blanchett in The AviatorMechanical Actress: Anthony Hopkins in Alexander

2005IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: Mysterious SkinBest Director: Gregg Araki for Mysterious SkinBest Actor: Joseph Gordon-Leavitt in Mysterious SkinBest Actress: Maria Bello in A History Of ViolenceBest Supporting Actor: Paddy Constantine in My Summer Of LoveBest Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener in CapoteBest Screenplay: Gregg Araki for Mysterious SkinBest Cinematography: Robert Elswit for Good Night And Good Luck and SyrianaBest Music: Howard Shore for A History Of ViolenceBest Production Design: William Chang Suk Ping for 2046Best Costume Design: William Chang Suk Ping for 2046Sominex Award: SarabandDramamine Award: CrashMechanical Actor: Tom Cruise for War Of The WorldsMechanical Actress: Dakota Fanning for War Of The Worlds

2007IRA Film Award WinnersBest Picture: The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert FordBest Director: Andrew Dominik for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert FordBest Actor: Casey Affleck in The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby GoneBest Actress: Marina Hands in Lady ChatterleyBest Supporting Actor: Paul Schneider in The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and Lars And The Real GirlBest Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan in Gone Baby GoneBest Screenplay: Corneliu Porumboiu for 12:08 East Of BucharestBest Cinematography: Roger Deakins for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, In The Valley Of Elah and No Country For Old MenBest Production Design: Patricia Norris for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert FordBest Music: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert FordBest Costume Design: Patricia Norris for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert FordSominex Award: Youth Without YouthDramamine Award: Before The Devil Knows You’re DeadMechanical Actor: John Travolta in HairsprayMechanical Actress: Meryl Streep in Lions For Lambs and RenditionComplete coverage of the 2007 IRAs here.

Best Costumes: (tie) Kasia Walicka-Maimone for Foxcatcher and A Most Violent Year (but not St. Vincent); Jacqueline Durranfor Mr. TurnerSominex Award (The Movie That Put Us To Sleep): The Monuments Men